Inganeyum Oral Review

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'Inganeyum Oral' further emphasizes the lack of fresh and solid story ideas in Malayalam cinema. All it can do is to deliver in the limited way that its plot allows it to, and ultimately end up being a predictable tear-show.
| Veeyen (NOWRUNNING)

Old men get married to young women despite all those warning signs looming all around. A few months past marriage, nothing is like what it seemed initially. 'Inganeyum Oral' that tells the story of one such man, has a plot that you most probably have seen before.

The film has Saikumar playing Balachandra Menon who is an unmarried professor, about to get retired. He has fallen in love with a painting of his and is therefore stunned when he gets to see a girl looking exactly liking the one on his canvas. Priyamvada (Praveena) is poor, and accepts his proposal after taking one hard look at his golden heart. But with Menon'e young nephew Rahul (Vinu Mohan) around, its not long before Menon decides that his wife and the youngster are up to something behind his back.

The situations that plant those seeds of suspicion in Menon's mind are proverbial. There is the classic 'palmistry scene' when an innocent Priyamvada takes a look at an even more innocent Rahul's palm and Menon walks in. There is also the 'no water in the tap scene' where Rahul walks out in the midst of his bath with the water having stopped, and an earnest Priyamvada who is busy washing clothes outside offers to sacrifice the little water that she has for him. Menon of course plays spoil sport and grabs the water bucket away from them.

When the couple gets into a thickly packed bus, Menon is all doubtful about the man who stands next to Priyamvada. He creates a ruckus and gets down at the next stop along with his wife.

The climax is a huge disappointment in the sense that it leaves the viewers fooled. I don't intend to reveal whatever happens, but would simply say that it leaves a lot to be desired. It makes the viewers believe something and then without any logical explanation moves on to something else that would have several of us leaving the halls in confusion.

Menon's mistrust is a scary phenomenon. So even as the film comes to an end with big smiles plastered all over, even the staunchest optimist would wonder how long the cheerfulness is bound to last. Because the man's age remains the same and so does his wife's and with Rahul out of the picture, the scene looks serene for the moment. Until of course someone else comes by.

Performances by the lead actors are evenly good, though Praveena is a notch ahead of the rest of them. The actress who has been cast in a double role does an incredible job of being Priyamvada, but looks out of place and sounds out of pitch as the older Sheela. The attempt to bring in a distinction between the two roles by having her voice dubbed for the older character seems to have backfired. Saikumar is confident as ever and Vinu Mohan does a decent job as well.

'Inganeyum Oral' further emphasizes the lack of fresh and solid story ideas in Malayalam cinema. All it can do is to deliver in the limited way that its plot allows it to, and ultimately end up being a predictable tear-show.